In this era of rapidly rising labor costs and increasing disinterest in factory work, it has become a necessity to move toward automation of manufacturing processes. One of the more recent manufacturing processes utilizes composite materials in the form of dry fibers coated with wet resin or preimpregnated fiber tape to form laminated structures or reticulated structures. Such structures are illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 3,962,393 entitled "Method for Making A Hollow Laminated Article" and U.S. Pat. No. 4,284,679 entitled "Filled Resin Coated Tape". These structures are generally formed by laying such preimpregnated tape or fibrous material, such as fiberglass, graphite or boron filaments, and organic resin, on a mandrel and then curing it by the application of heat and pressure.
In order to have an efficient automated lay-up process, it is necessary that the head laying the material move rapidly and accurately over the surface on which the material is to be laid. Tape laying heads typically used in prior art machines are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,574,040 to Chitwood et al and U.S. Pat. No. 3,775,219 to Karlson et al. In these machines, the tape laying heads carry not only the mechanism for laying the tape but also the mechanism for holding the spools of tape and dispensing the tape to the tape laying head. Thus the tape laying heads must of necessity be bulky and weighty and are difficult to maneuver with rapidity and accuracy due to their weight and inertia.
Accordingly, it is a general object of the present invention to provide an improved automated lay-up machine for the fabrication of laminated and reticulated structures.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an improved lay-up machine which can rapidly and accurately layup composite materials.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an improved lay-up machine in which the laying head has a minimum of bulk and weight.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide an improved lay-up machine in which the laying head can be rapidly and accurately maneuvered.